Heaven or Hell

This is based on some discussion going on on RO. A number of skeptics worry about God "sending" people to hell for eternity when they sinned for such a comparatively short time.

What did God do for us and to us and why

The crucifixion & resurrection:
It was not “just” death on the cross, and 3 days, and then all over. Jesus, the sinless One, paid the penalty and bore the sins of all man kind – from creation to now, and to the end, whenever that is. Can you imagine, being completely innocent, and yet bearing the guilt for the worst person you know? Multiply that to all the guilt of all people whoever lived and ever will live. I don’t think we are capable of even beginning to comprehend what Christ suffered from his arrest until the resurrection.

Heaven and Hell:
They are not simply “reward” and “punishment;” they are what we choose. We have the 70+/- years here on earth to make a decision. Make no mistake, it is our decision, not His. If we do not choose to make that decision for Christ, there is no place left for us except Hell. Hell was not originally meant to “house” human beings – it was made for “the devil and his angels.” But for people who refuse to choose Christ, the only way to Heaven, there is no other place for them. In Isaiah 5:14, it says that “Hell has enlarged herself.” This was necessary to accommodate the people who choose it. It is not necessarily a punishment. It is our choice. It is true that there are degrees of punishment and reward. The degrees of punishment seem to be based on knowledge more than the degree of the sin we commit – if we can even divide sin into degrees. Jesus said that more will be required of those who know more. This is in the Christian life, as well as in the non-Christian life.

We have all this life to make the decision. We can’t lay the blame on God if we make the wrong one. God is not punishing us for 70+/- years of sin. We have brought the punishment upon ourselves for refusing to accept the free gift he purchased with his blood, and is offering to us.

As for, why did God make us with free will? Because he wanted us to serve him by our own choice, not because we have no choice.

And who is eligible for salvation? The answer is in I Peter 3:9 – everyone – “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” We all – every single one of us, every person who has ever lived and who will ever live – have that choice. If we make the right choice, we will spend eternity with Him in Heaven. If we don’t make a choice – well, that is impossible, because by not making the right choice, by default, we make the wrong choice.

No comments allowed for the time being

Moderating comments did not discourage spammers and their ilk. I have turned off comments, and will leave them turned off for what I consider a reasonable length of time, after which I will turn them back on to see if I have discouraged the spammers. I just recently had my computer in the shop - Mike's, too - to clean up the malware. I have been given to understand that there has been a spate of malware showing up in computers in the past 6 months, according to the shop we had ours in. We think we may have a handle on it now, with various anti-malware programs and firewalls. What I'm thinking is that the spam is coming from the same places as the malware, and it may not go away any time soon. I think it is better to have the comments turned off than simply reject them, because I believe the spammers get paid regardless. I am sorry if I have inconvenienced anyone - I do like to have comments on my blogs, but I have had very few genuine comments recently - only 2 that have shown up since I started seeing spam, so it's probably no loss. I don't see a method of allowing selective posts to the point that I want to allow them - it's either risk spam, or allow none.